3.1.8 What Breaks Wudu

In this unit:

There are 4 things that break or nullify wudu.

When you break your wudu you get minor hadath on you.

You must remove the minor hadath when you want to pray.

Keywords

Nullify

Minor Hadath

Unconscious

Excellent, we’ve learned how to make wudu! We learned what is fard in wudu, and what is sunnah. We learned that we must be very careful to perform the fards of wudu correctly so that our wudu will be valid or correct.

But do you know when it becomes necessary to make wudu? What breaks our wudu? Let’s learn it now, insha’Allah.

Four Things that Break Wudu

There are 4 things that break or nullify our wudu. If any of these four things happen, we must make a fresh wudu for our next prayer. Nothing else breaks our wudu other than these four things.

When you break your wudu, you get minor hadath on you. Remember, we said that we can imagine minor hadath to be green paint. That means minor hadath is on your face, arms, head and feet. When you make wudu, you wash that minor hadath from your face, arms, head and feet. Then you can pray, touch the Qur’an, and do anything else that requires you to be in the state of wudu. So what breaks our wudu? Here it is.

The 4 Nullifiers of Wudu or the 4 Things that Break Wudu

1. If anything exists from the private parts

1. If anything exists from the private parts

whether it is solid, liquid or gas. This usually happens when someone goes to the toilet.

2. If someone becomes unconscious.

2. If someone becomes unconscious.

That usually happens when someone falls asleep. Sometimes it happens when someone needs to have surgery and the doctor gives him medicine to put him to sleep. But if you fall asleep while you are sitting up straight on a hard surface, it doesn’t break your wudu (though the teacher won’t like it if you do it in class!)

3. If a man touches a woman’s skin,even if it happens accidentally.

3. If a man touches a woman’s skin,even if it happens accidentally.

It’s the same if a woman touches a man’s skin.

4. If someone touches anyone’s private parts with the skin of the inner surface of the hand.

4. If someone touches anyone’s private parts with the skin of the inner surface of the hand.

This could happen if someone touches his own private parts or someone else’s, like when a mother is cleaning her baby. If there is a barrier between your skin and the private parts, it doesn’t break your wudu.

Vomiting does not break your wudu (even though you feel terrible when it happens to you).

Laughing in the middle of prayer might break your prayer, but it doesn’t break your wudu.